Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) announced today that the Company`s Board of Directors, at today`s regularly scheduled meeting, authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $500 million of Starwood shares. Current total share repurchase authorization, when combined with amounts remaining from previous authorizations, is now approximately $694 million.

Over the last three years the Company has repurchased approximately $941 million of Starwood shares. At March 31, 2001, total Starwood shares outstanding was approximately 201 million.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 725 properties in 80 countries and 120,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. With internationally renowned brands, Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchiser of hotels and resorts including: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W brands, as well as Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit us at http://www.starwoodhotels.com. SOURCE Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

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